Interesting Results

Internet-Aided Car Purchases

A 2003 study¹ examined how the Internet has changed car buying behavior by comparing the search activities undertaken by car buyers in Buffalo, New York in 1989 (before the World Wide Web was even an option for searching for car buying information) to those buying cars in the same area in 1999. The results showed that:

Almost 40% of those who participated in the 1999 survey used the Internet as part of their decision process.
- Almost all of these used the Internet to search for price information.
- About two-thirds used the Internet to look for performance and reliability information.
- Slightly less than a third used the Internet to obtain a dealer referral.
The Internet made the search process more efficient for those who used it.
People who used the Internet to search for information to guide their purchase decision were disproportionately likely to be:
- Young.
- Highly educated.
- Dissatisfied with the dealer who sold them their previous car.

¹ Ratchford, Brian T., Myung-Soo Lee, and Debabrata Talukdar (2003), “The Impact of the Internet on Information Search for Automobiles”, Journal of Marketing Research, 40(2), 193-209.